Suggested activities for students

  • United Nations CyberSchoolBus (for children ages 5-12) http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/poverty2000/teach.html Take the UN’s CyberSchoolBus. The poverty module has seven units including the introduction and conclusion, with sections on food, health, housing, education, work and economic security. Each unit has four sections: an introduction, a classroom activity, a community service activity and, finally, a resource section with internet sites that offer solutions to the topic or examples of programs and services that are helping people around the world.
  • Kids Can Make A Difference® (KIDS), http://www.kids.maine.org/prog.htm This website is designed for use by middle- and high school students. It focuses on the root causes of hunger and poverty, the people most affected, solutions and how students can help. Explore the different options and discuss what you think of them.
  • Try the "Twenty Questions About Poverty and Development" at the World Bank website. http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/quiz/index.htm

  • Investigate conditions of poverty in your city. Who are the poor? How did they come to be poor? Where did you find information on poverty. Find out what government and non-governmental organizations are doing about poverty in your city.


  • Do an exercise to look at welfare in the United States from the point of view of the working poor. Read: "Making Ends Meet to see -- How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work"
  • Look into how poverty is reported in the news. Find a story on poverty or poor people in your local newspaper. What is your understanding of poverty based on this story?